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Acceptance · 16 April 1982

As silly as it seems, I decided to include two of my first essays on my website. They were written in April of my senior in high school as part of my Prep for College class. For almost twenty years, I thought that my teacher, Ms. Reed, had given me an A on an essay called Acceptance even though it had been late and was not supposed to be given any points. I searched for that essay for years and when I finally found it, I realized that she had done what she said she would. She had not accepted the paper. While she did not accept the essay, Ms. Reed still liked it. She said so at the bottom of the original paper. I guess that is why I can still blame her for my love of the essay.

I must admit that I did make two changes to Acceptance before posting it almost 30 years after it was written. Toward the end of the essay, I made “paper” singular instead of the original mistake of being plural. And I made the last paragraph its own paragraph instead of keeping it with the one before. It was originally written April 16, 1982.

Acceptance

High school teachers are too lenient. They let their students talk them out of making assignments due and let their students make up excuses for handing in papers late. If teachers really wanted to prepare students for college, they would not accept most late papers. This assignment should not be accepted because the due date was known, the reason for being late was merely an excuse, and the acceptance would be grounds for accepting other late papers.

Like all assignments in Preparation for College, everybody knew well in advance when this paper was due. The assignment sheet with all the due dates was given to each student on the first or second day of the semester. No extension of the due date was made. The teacher said several times during the week that the paper was due Friday, repeating it at least twice on Thursday, the day the class was allowed to write during the period. The knowledge of the due date should be enough grounds by itself to not accept this paper.

There are many adequate reasons for accepting late papers, but the reason given for this paper was merely an excuse. A fire at home or a death in the family are real reasons, not excuses; therefore, they are acceptable. A scholarship due on the same date as the paper was due is only an excuse, a feeble one at best. It is like saying that there was not time to do it because of other homework. Nobody cares how late the student has to stay up, or at least, how late he said he had to. The applications could have been done earlier in the week or during the vacation, or for that matter, the paper could have been done at one of these times. It was not a reason for being late; it was only an excuse; therefore, the paper is unacceptable.

Even if this paper is acceptable with respect to the other reasons, it should not be accepted because the acceptance could be used as grounds to accept other late papers. Most students know when late papers are accepted. They make themselves aware so that when they have late papers, they can say, “You accepted John’s paper.” Not accepting late papers from anybody without an acceptable reason is a protection for teachers who want to be fair.

To be fair to everybody involved, this paper should not be accepted. The due date was known; the reason for being late was merely an excuse; the acceptance would be grounds for accepting other late papers. These are all good reasons to not accept this paper by themselves, but together they are overwhelming. The paper is not five-hundred words either.

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Five-Hundred Words · 8 April 1982

I have done many essays since I was introduced to the five-paragraph essay format almost thirty years ago. More than a few of them have just been for fun. Many people I know think that I am crazy when I say that I like to write. Even more of them would think so if I said that I have actually written many essays that were not assigned by my teachers or professors. I guess I have my high school English teacher, Ms. Reed, to blame for that. She was the one who assigned the following essay. And she is the one to blame for my enduring love of writing. After all, it was she who gave me so much encouragement.

Five-Hundred Words was written in April 1982 during my senior year in high school. I made one or two minor changes before including it here on my website.

Five-Hundred Words

Five-hundred words. These three words put fear into the hearts of many English students. The reason for this fear is not just five-hundred words. As any teacher can affirm, students can normally spill forth five-hundred words verbally, in about three minutes. The three words have a deeper meaning, theme paper. A theme paper is a paper that the student writes about any subject. Any student should be able to write five-hundred words about a subject which he can talk about for hours. This assumption is not true in many cases. For many students, writing a five-hundred-word theme paper is not easy. Besides the fact that the theme must have five-hundred words, the paper is difficult because the mechanics, thought, and organization must be adequate.

Although the mechanics of a paper should be automatic for every student, they are often where the mistakes of an otherwise thorough paper cause a worse grade. Mechanics include spelling, punctuation, grammar, sentence structure, and a good choice of words. Of these, the first three, spelling, punctuation, and grammar, are the easiest to do correctly yet are where the majority of mechanical errors occur. This is either because of careless, thoughtless errors or the students’ previous teachers did not teach these things. The sentence structure, or correct placement of each part of a sentence, and the proper choice of words are also parts of mechanics. Sentence structure should be automatic and not pose any problem, yet at times it does. Proper choice of words is not totally automatic and requires thought. Words such as “good” and “fine” must be used sparingly which is difficult for many students who use these words frequently. The total mechanics of a paper are not extremely difficult but pose problems for many students.

The thought part of a paper is not as automatic as mechanics, therefore require time and planning. The first part of the thought process of a paper is finding a meaningful subject, meaningful to both the student and teacher. Although many subjects are stored in students’ minds, few make it past the first stage. The subject must then be limited to a size suitable for a five-hundred-word theme. Since many books could be written for many subjects, this phase of the thought process is difficult. After the first two phases are completed, a pointer or direction for the paper must be found. The paper must then have adequate, specific support or the paper will not be convincing. The thought process of a paper takes the most time but it is not the most difficult part of the five-hundred-word theme.

Organization is by far the most difficult part of the paper. This is so because it must be carried throughout the whole paper or else it will be evident regardless of the quality of the rest of the paper. The paper must have a clear beginning, a clear middle, and a clear ending. The beginning should be an introduction which contains a “blueprint” of how the paper is made and an adequate thesis statement. The thesis statement is the foundation of the paper so it must be faultless. The middle is the difficult part. It must contain paragraphs supporting the topic sentences which point back to the thesis statement. The ending is not as difficult because it only sums up the paper by restating the thesis statement. The beginning, middle, and ending should be clear to help the reader. Coherence must also be kept in order to have an excellent paper. Each sentence must relate to every other sentence and to the thesis statement. If coherence is not kept, the paper will not be acceptable.

Although each part of a five-hundred-word theme is difficult, the hardest part is still to use five-hundred words.

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